Inside NIA: A Blog for Researchers

Do you know a high school, college, graduate or medical/dental student interested in biomedical research? Perhaps s/he is looking for an internship to help inform her/his career path. How about recommending the student come work for a summer at the National Institute on Aging? Each summer, NIA’s Intramural Research Program opens its lab doors for an 8 to 10-week intensive research experience.
Read More

As an NIA program officer for 11 years and counting I have the rare privilege of monitoring many study section meetings devoted almost exclusively to R03, R21, and R01 applications. One thing that leaps out of this experience is that a perpetually changing cast of peer reviewers raise the same basic criticisms over and over again. Read More

NIA funding announcements come with an expiration date. Program Announcements, for example, usually expire after three years. Lately, I’ve gotten some questions about what it means when a Program Announcement expires and there’s no new funding announcement specifically for that topic. Is the NIA still funding research on the topic? Yes, in almost all cases.
Read More

We are celebrating some diversity landmarks at the National Institutes of Health! Late last year, more than $31 million was awarded to academic institutions to develop and test strategies that address the racial diversity of the United States biomedical workforce. As we highlight these critical efforts, I want to use this space to discuss them in relation to health disparities research.
Read More

Identifying the genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is of course no easy task. From among the thousands of gene candidates in the human genome, we need to determine which are involved in onset and progression, and which increase risk or offer protection. Where can researchers find the biological specimens needed to unlock these mysteries? The NIA-funded National Cell Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease, or NCRAD, a veritable treasure trove of biological material located at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Read More

The NIA has long been interested in understanding the role of aging on the development and progression of specific chronic diseases. More recently, we’ve begun to try to understand why two or more conditions might occur together in older people, and perhaps more importantly, what to do about it. NIA released a set of Program Announcements on self-management of chronic conditions, seeking applications using R01, R15, or R21 mechanisms. Read More

We announced interim paylines on our funding policy site the other day. When you read that we are funding to the 5th percentile for research grants, and to a score of 14 on career awards and only paying NIA-reviewed applications that achieved scores of 10 or 11 you must wonder at our apparent miserliness. Why not release more awards now? Read More

As we await news on our budget for this year and move forward on a number of initiatives, we thought we would reprise a few of the blog’s greatest hits of the last six months in case you missed them. If you missed a few, now is your chance to catch up. Every week, the NIA blog brings you important information on funding, grants, scientific resources, and other topics of interest to researchers. Have a question you’d like us to cover? Let us know by commenting on this post. Read More

Like many other Institutes at NIH, the NIA assesses and updates its research directions every few years. This exercise is an important one, resulting in a Strategic Directions document that helps set and communicate priorities for the Institute and for aging research. We are updating our Strategic Directions, and I am seeking your input.
Read More